San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-02-02
THAT STATE REFoRMAToRY.

proposed refOrmatOry measures for the
reclamation Of the criminal classes have
brought to the front the inevitable rural
legislator with his ideas Of one hundred
years since that them new tangled no
tions OF refOrmin' aln't no good no how,
perticklary If they's niggers." ihis
sentiment also finds expression aud de-
fence at the hands OF some Of the witty
correspondents at the capital, who nave
never gwen the criminal classes
thought beyond their utility in furnish
ing an item for their pens as reporters.
The color of the criminals TO be placed
in the refOrmatory, proposed by this
legislature, has nothing 10 do with the
question of the necessity. The need Of
some corrective measures 10 restrain
the young criminals and attempt their
reformation before they are altogether
hardened in crime, is the sole thing TO
be considered. That necessity being
accepted, IL becomes the business Of the
legislature to provide as wisely as IL
knows how the means of carrying out
that work OF reformation. The state
ment OF Jones, Of Pamela, that youthful
criminals are more hardened as rule,
and more difficult Of reclamation, 10 not
borne out by the testimony OF those
who have had such institutions under
their care. The real animus OF this OBJ
lection to a state reformatory lies in
the fact that the bulk Of our youthful
criminals are from the colored classes.
This is so, because Of the bad blood in
fused through vicious mixture OF
races, and the whites are more response
BILE for ii than are the colOred women,
whose vicious offspring fiji SO many OF
our jails and penitentiary cells. The
burden of educating and reforming this
class is not palatable to some white
democrats, and they urge it's useless
ness. Jones, OF Pamela, says, according
to the press reports from the capital:
I've had a great deal of experience with
chnvicts, especially youthful convicts. tell
GU they are generally hardened and not as
easily reformed as the old ones. And out OF
there are eighty seven of them cOored youths,
who have become vicious through training
from infancy that amounts almost to instinct,
and cannot be educated out OF IN IN dlter
they reach the point of detection and conyic-
ton"
If the statement of the honorable
member from Pamela given above is cor
rect, then it becomes matter of the
most vital Importance TO correct the
abuses of nature thus fostered by ignor-
| ance, and provide industrial schools as
well as reformatOries, so that these chill
dren of vicious ignorance can have some
chance in the world, before the legisla-
ture OF the state in which they are born
condemns them to a perpetual life OF
criminal seryitude. The position taken
by Mr.. Jones may be true, judged mar
rowly from his own experience, and
every one knows what chances for re-
formation are usually afforded colOred
criminals in this state. The general
statement that such youthful criminals
are not as easily reformed as older ones
is not true. 1t is cOntradicted by all the
facts of reformstory work among Grim
inals, both in this country and in Eu-
rope.
The state OF Texas CanUot SnOrd to
pass this matter by, and whistle il down
the wind as an efftte experiment, U on
the pronunciamento of any man. The re-
formation. or attempted reformation, of
every youthful criminal in Texas is de-
handed of The state. In this work the
moral support Of every church and
school should be enlisted, and the phil
anthropy of every citizen who would see
the state redeemed from pauperism and
crime. There is no desire to disguise
the fact that this work of reformation is
II hard. uninterestiDg, difficult, and too
oft, thankless one. Ii is true that
the conditions surrounding it, and per-
meating it everywhere and every how,
are more unfsvOrable in Texas than in
almost any other state In the Union;
none the less should the work be under-
taken, and upon this present legislature
is laid the burden of lis deyisement and
attempted execution. When that Ia
done and fails, and not till then, will it
be in order to say it cannot be done.
NJ